


Pulling My Weight (In Gold)

by Cyane



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Character Study, Gen, Grunkle Stan Has Issues, Grunkle Stan Needs A Hug, Homelessness, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Minor Violence, Self-Hatred
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-30
Updated: 2017-09-30
Packaged: 2019-01-07 02:54:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,619
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12224283
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cyane/pseuds/Cyane
Summary: Stanley cares more about money than anything else in the world. Because he cares aboutfamilymore than anything else in the world. And he was taught at a young age that family came at a price.





	Pulling My Weight (In Gold)

**Author's Note:**

> Title from Gallant's _Weight In Gold_. Definitely recommend. It's got major Sam Smith vibes, and I'm all about that gay.
> 
> [ NOTES ]
> 
> This is introspection with plot. Well, not really _plot_ , but we've got interactions between characters and stuff. I've always found it extremely distressing that Stanley is found as comic relief because of his obsession with money, when in the truth of the matter, he was kicked out as a minor and told to come back when he had made a fortune. Stanley's entire existence has constantly been judged by his worth-- not in HIS OWN worth, but in economic value. 
> 
> I'm also planning on writing a LOT more short Gravity Falls fics, so make sure to check back if you're into that sort of biz.

_"Please never made me any money, kid..."_

PLEASE COME! - FORD

STANFORD PINES,  
618 GOPHER RD.,  
GRAVITY FALLS, OR.

STANLEY PINES,  
005 DEAD END FLATS,  
NEW MEXICO

_"...In fact, just saying the word is giving me a burning sensation."_

(Stanley screamed as it burned into his back, searing the flesh. The smell of burning skin made him gag, but nothing hurt more than-)

_"Who'd sacrifice everything they've worked for just for their dumb sibling?"_

Thirty years. Thirty years of waiting, thirty years of despair, guilt, frustration-- thirty years, wasting away in Oregon, sacrificing everything-- his identity, his home, his life with Jimmy, his safety on the run from Rico, his _life_ \-- thirty years of working to get Stanford back.  
Only to get punched in the face and told that at the end of the Summer, he was to leave.

(Stanley was used to getting kicked out. Whether be by his own father, his landlords, the bartender, or his brother... it was expected.)

_"You ignoramus! Your brother was gonna be our ticket out of this dump!"_

Stanley was never even considered as an option.

_"That clown? At this rate he'll be lucky to graduate high school. Look, there's a saltwater taffy store on the dock. And somebody's gotta get paid to scrape the barnacles off of it. Stanford's goin' places. But hey, look on the bright side: at least you'll have one son here in New Jersey forever."_

Ironically, Stanley hadn't even gone back to New Jersey once. He'd traveled the states, getting banned one place to the next. And it had been _Stanford_ who had gotten stuck, without his dream school in California. And yet nothing had changed.

Ford was the genius, who had been betrayed by his big sweaty oaf of a brother. And Stanley was still the screw up. He just happened to live on the streets.

_"Why would I want to do anything with the person who sabotaged my entire future?!"_

With the ~~brother~~ person who ~~accidentally~~ sabotaged ~~one thing in your life~~ your entire future. The reminder of Ford saying that made Stanley laugh, a little. Because Ford's future had never weighed on that school. 

But Stan's had weighed on Ford not going. And yet...

_"And until you make us a fortune, you aren't welcome in this household!"_

And that's when it became all-too clear to Stanley.

Family was _everything_ to Stanley. But family came with a price. Not in love, not in loyalty, not in forgiveness- in cold, lifeless cash. And so from the moment Stanley's ass hit the pavement, and the duffel bag hit him in the chest, Stan's entire future was to be built around money.

_"I went from undergrad to PhD three years ahead of schedule, wrote a thesis that was nationally ranked, and was awarded an enormous grant for my own scientific research!"_

Stan scratched lottery tickets and his only map was covered in red markings of states he had been banned from. Every invention he had tried to make had failed. Treasure hunting had failed. While Stanford was writing a nationally ranked thesis, Stanley had been falling asleep in dark alleyways and running away from thugs who wanted him dead.

He didn't always get away.

_"That's it?! You finally wanna see me after ten years, and it's to tell me to get as far away from you as possible!?"_

_"Stanley, you don't understand what I'm up against! What I've been through!"_

It was almost laughable.

 _"No, no. You don't understand what_ I've _been through! I've been to prison in three different countries! I once had to chew my way out of the trunk of a car! You think you've got problems?!"_

Stan's jaw still ached at the memory. His gums and teeth hadn't stopped bleeding for days afterwards. 

_"I'm giving you a chance to do the first worthwhile thing in your life and you won't even listen!"_

And that's really what it came down to. 

Because Stanley Pines was worthless. Filbrick knew it. Stan knew it. Everyone in New Jersey and now the entirety of the United States knew it. And his own twin brother, his dear, _dear_ brother... Stanford knew it. Stan hadn't made a dime. A dime had more worth than he did.

It didn't even matter that he'd _tried_. Because somehow, they expected a seventeen-year-old kid high-school dropout homeless _teenager_ to make a fortune on his own, when he didn't have enough money for food or gas. 

_"Finally I found something I was good at. For once being a liar and a cheat paid off. The old me was dead, and I'd faked a car crash to prove it. By day I was Stanford Pines: Mr. Mystery. But by night I was down in the basement, trying to bring the real Stanford back."_

The only good Stanley ever did was through a mask of his brother.

_"All you ever do is lie and cheat right on your brother's coattails."_

Stanley Pines was a failure. Stanford Pines was successful. And that's what Ford had been missing, all along; it wasn't _him_ who had lost an identity that day. Stanley Pines had died in that car crash, and Stan-- being no longer Stanley, and most definitely not Ford-- had become exactly that: no one. 

Being no one was better than being Stanley Pines, in Stan's eyes.

_"So all this time you were just trying to save your brother."_

_"But when the summer's over, you give me my house back, you give me my name back, and this Mystery Shack junk is over forever. You got it?"_

That had always been the plan. 

Stan realized something, that day, standing in front of a mirror with Ford beside him. He realized that money didn't matter. Truly and really, _money didn't matter_. Money was just as worthless as he was. He had spent the good part of thirty years, finally building something that had given him what he had always wanted. The Mystery Shack was the one thing Stan had created, almost entirely on his own, made something that was so genuinely him-- while so genuinely _not_ \-- and he had made decent money. He had found a family.

And it didn't matter.

Because goal number one was always Stanford. 

Ford had said that he looked like their father, in the mirror. But Stan thought that out of the two of them, Ford had grown far more like their old man. Between generations, he was still being kicked out of a place he considered his home. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

_"I liked the way things were here before. Just us and Stan."_

_"Wherever we go, we go together."_

_"You're just a... dumber, sweatier version of him."_

_"You have two sons: one of them is incredibly gifted, the other one is standing outside of this room and his name's Stanley."_

_"Without Ford I was just half of a dynamic duo. I couldn't make it without him. I was gonna lose my brother forever."_

_You did_ , a voice whispered in the back of Stanley's head.

It whispered when Ford came home, screaming about his science project. It whispered when Stanford turned his back to him, and Filbrick kicked him out, and he was disowned. It whispered when Stanford didn't even try looking for Stan around the area, for weeks afterward, and when Stan finally had to move out of town, and when Stanley tried calling Ford in the middle of the night only to hang up.

It whispered those same words when Stanford finally called Stan back, only to tell him to get as far away from him as possible. 

It whispered those same words when Stanford flew into the portal. And when Stanford came back, after thirty long years, only to tell Stanley he wasn't welcome.

Stanley lost his brother, not once. But over and over and over again.

_"Thanks to one dumb mistake I had no brother, no home, no nothing."_

 

\--

 

Stanford watched Stanley haul the duffel bag into the car.

It was so reminiscent of the day Stanley left-- no, the day their father literally kicked Stanley to the curb. Lee wasn't taking anything but the duffel and the car, just like he had all those years back. No food. No identity. Nowhere to go, nowhere to be. The kids had left, Wendy's family had moved upstate. Soos had gotten a new job elsewhere, although everyone knew he was barely handling it.

The Summer was over. And, to Ford's surprise, Stanley wasn't even fighting him on the deal they had made. Not one word of argument, not even from the beginning. Like he had expected it to happen.  
The thought made Stanford undeniably sad.

 _Tell him to stay,_ Ford urged himself. 

"Hey- um... Stanley. Stanley?"

"Hmm?" Stan looked up, deep lines under his eyes. He had one foot in the car door.

Ford fidgeted for a moment. "High-six?" He blurted out, questioning, and raising his hand in an offer. It was childish, and not at all what he had intended to say. But it made an embarrassed, sheepish smile roll onto his face. _I'll work out living arrangements. It will take time, but I can learn to cope with his behaviors. At least, he can stay until he has somewhere else to go._

But Stanley's face crumpled, and for a moment, he looked so completely _devastated_ , that the smile fell off of Ford's face like ash.

And then Stan let a tiny, sad smile come onto his face. 

Ford watched in shock as his brother turned, got into the car, and drove away without a second glance or another word. 

_"Don't leave me hanging...!"_

Wasn't it exactly what he had done? 

Ford realized he was starting to understand.

**Author's Note:**

> derp derp da duuupe that was friggin depressing
> 
> I'm a whore for kudos/comments/bookmarks, so feel free :')


End file.
